A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



medicine was not established, until Hippocrates of 

 Cos, the "father of medicine," came upon the scene. 

 In an age that produced Phidias, Lysias, Herodotus, 

 Sophocles, and Pericles, it seems but natural that the 

 medical art should find an exponent who would rise 

 above superstitious dogmas and lay the foundation 

 for a medical science. His rejection of the supernat- 

 ural alone stamps the greatness of his genius. But, 

 besides this, he introduced more detailed observation 

 of diseases, and demonstrated the importance that at- 

 taches to prognosis. 



Hippocrates was born at Cos, about 460 B.C., but 

 spent most of his life at Larissa, in Thessaly. He was 

 educated as a physician by his father, and travelled 

 extensively as an itinerant practitioner for several 

 years. His travels in different climates and among 

 many different people undoubtedly tended to sharpen 

 his keen sense of observation. He was a practical 

 physician as well as a theorist, and, withal, a clear and 

 concise writer. " Life is short," he says, " opportunity 

 fleeting, judgment difficult, treatment easy, but treat- 

 ment after thought is proper and profitable." 



His knowledge of anatomy was necessarily very im- 

 perfect, and was gained largely from his predecessors, 

 to whom he gave full credit. Dissections of the hu- 

 man body were forbidden him, and he was obliged to 

 confine his experimental researches to operations 

 on the lower animals. His knowledge of the struct- 

 ure and arrangement of the bones, however, was 

 fairly accurate, but the anatomy of the softer tis- 

 sues, as he conceived it, was a queer jumbling to- 

 gether of blood-vessels, muscles, and tendons. He 



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